Editing Thomas Beecham (section)

===First orchestras===
Beecham first conducted in public in St. Helens in October 1899, with an ''ad&nbsp;hoc'' ensemble comprising local musicians and players from the [[Royal Liverpool Philharmonic|Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra]] and [[the Hallé]] in Manchester.<ref name=reid27/> A month later, he stood in at short notice for the celebrated conductor [[Hans Richter (conductor)|Hans Richter]] at a concert by the Hallé to mark Joseph Beecham's inauguration as mayor of St Helens.<ref name=reid27/> Soon afterwards, Joseph Beecham secretly committed his wife to a mental hospital.{{refn|Lucas concludes that Josephine Beecham was suffering from [[post-natal depression]]. As Joseph Beecham was found to be keeping a mistress, his wife was able to obtain a judicial separation, which removed Joseph's right to block her release from the hospital.<ref>Lucas, p. 17</ref>|group= n}} Thomas and his elder sister Emily helped to secure their mother's release and to force their father to pay annual alimony of £4,500.<ref>Reid, pp. 31–34</ref> For this, Joseph disinherited them. Beecham was estranged from his father for ten years.<ref name=reid62/>

Beecham's professional début as a conductor was in 1902 at the Shakespeare Theatre, [[Clapham]], with [[Michael William Balfe|Balfe]]'s ''[[The Bohemian Girl]]'', for the Imperial Grand Opera Company.<ref name=lucas20>Lucas, p. 20</ref> He was engaged as assistant conductor for a tour and was allotted four other operas, including ''[[Carmen]]'' and ''[[Pagliacci]]''.<ref name=lucas20/> A Beecham biographer calls the company "grandly named but decidedly ramshackle",<ref name=lucas20/> though Beecham's Carmen was [[Zélie de Lussan]], a leading exponent of the title role.<ref>Lucas, p. 22</ref> Beecham was also composing music in these early years, but he was not satisfied with his own efforts and instead concentrated on conducting.<ref>Beecham (1959), p. 74</ref>{{refn|Beecham told an interviewer in 1910 that he spent a year composing, and produced three operas&nbsp;– two in English and one in Italian&nbsp;– and "once spent three weeks in trying to compose the first movement of a sonata", which led him to conclude that composition was not his forte.<ref>"Mr. Thomas Beecham", ''[[The Musical Times]]'', October 1910, p. 630</ref>|group= n}}

[[Image:Thomas Beecham (October 1910).jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Youngish man, with neat imperial beard and moustache, seated, supporting head with left hand|Beecham, c. 1910]]
[[File:Beecham-byEmu-1910.jpg|thumb|right|upright|alt=caricature of neatly bearded man in formal dress|Caricature of Beecham by "Emu", 1910]]
In 1906 Beecham was invited to conduct the [[New Symphony Orchestra (London)|New Symphony Orchestra]], a recently formed ensemble of 46 players, in a series of concerts at the [[Wigmore Hall|Bechstein Hall]] in London.<ref>Lucas, p. 32</ref> Throughout his career, Beecham frequently chose to programme works to suit his own tastes rather than those of the paying public. In his early discussions with his new orchestra, he proposed works by a long list of barely known composers such as [[Étienne Méhul]], [[Nicolas Dalayrac]] and [[Ferdinando Paer]].<ref>Reid, p. 54</ref> During this period, Beecham first encountered the music of [[Frederick Delius]], which he at once loved deeply and with which he became closely associated for the rest of his life.<ref>Jefferson, p. 32</ref>

Beecham quickly concluded that to compete with the two existing London orchestras, the [[Queen's Hall]] Orchestra and the recently founded [[London Symphony Orchestra]] (LSO), his forces must be expanded to full symphonic strength and play in larger halls.<ref>Lucas, p. 24</ref> For two years starting in October 1907, Beecham and the enlarged New Symphony Orchestra gave concerts at the Queen's Hall. He paid little attention to the box office: his programmes were described by a biographer as "even more certain to deter the public then than it would be in our own day".<ref name=reid55>Reid, p. 55</ref>  The principal pieces of his first concert with the orchestra were [[Vincent d'Indy|d'Indy]]'s symphonic ballad ''La forêt enchantée'', [[Bedřich Smetana|Smetana]]'s symphonic poem ''Šárka'', and [[Édouard Lalo|Lalo]]'s little-known [[Symphony in G minor (Lalo)|Symphony in G minor]].<ref>Reid, pp. 55–56</ref> Beecham retained an affection for the last work: it was among the works he conducted at his final recording sessions more than fifty years later.<ref name=salter>Salter, p. 4; and Procter-Gregg, pp. 37–38</ref>

In 1908 Beecham and the New Symphony Orchestra parted company, disagreeing about artistic control and, in particular, the deputy system. Under this system, orchestral players, if offered a better-paid engagement elsewhere, could send a substitute to a rehearsal or a concert.<ref>Russell, p. 10</ref>  The treasurer of the [[Royal Philharmonic Society]] described it thus: "''A'', whom you want, signs to play at your concert. He sends ''B'' (whom you don't mind) to the first rehearsal. ''B'', without your knowledge or consent, sends ''C'' to the second rehearsal. Not being able to play at the concert, ''C'' sends ''D'', whom you would have paid five shillings to stay away."<ref>Reid, p. 50</ref>{{refn|The lines are put into Beecham's mouth in the 1980 play ''Beecham'' by [[Caryl Brahms]] and [[Ned Sherrin]].|group= n}} [[Henry Wood]] had already banned the deputy system in the Queen's Hall Orchestra (provoking rebel players to found the London Symphony Orchestra), and Beecham followed suit.<ref name=reid70>Reid, p. 70</ref> The New Symphony Orchestra survived without him and subsequently became the [[Royal Albert Hall]] Orchestra.<ref name=reid70/>

In 1909, Beecham founded the Beecham Symphony Orchestra.<ref name=reid71>Reid, p. 71</ref> He did not poach from established symphony orchestras, but instead he recruited from theatre bandrooms, local symphony societies, the [[palm court]]s of hotels, and music colleges.<ref>Reid, pp. 70–71</ref> The result was a youthful team&nbsp;– the average age of his players was 25. They included names that would become celebrated in their fields, such as [[Albert Sammons]], [[Lionel Tertis]], [[Eric Coates]] and [[Eugene Cruft]].<ref name=reid71/>

Because he persistently programmed works that did not attract the public, Beecham's musical activities at this time consistently lost money. As a result of his estrangement from his father between 1899 and 1909, his access to the Beecham family fortune was strictly limited. From 1907 he had an annuity of £700 left to him in his grandfather's will, and his mother subsidised some of his loss-making concerts,<ref name=reid62>Reid, p. 62</ref> but it was not until father and son were reconciled in 1909 that Beecham was able to draw on the family fortune to promote opera.<ref>Reid, p. 88</ref>